Partial or complete loss of an individual's natural teeth, either or both at the upper and lower jaw, due to age, accident, diseases or other reasons has some serious effects on an individual, both functionally and socially. Lack of teeth poses several serious functional problems such as distortion of the individual's face, not being able to chew, speech difficulties, etc. Even more so, a smile with a full set of white teeth is considered something to be desired, i.e. esthetics play an important role. These problems become more severe depending on the number of missing teeth.
Utilization of artificial denture appliance poses a general problem concerned with retention of same in position as during normal chewing or talking, the appliance may have the tendency to ride up out of its position, causing speech difficulties, chewing difficulties, spitting and other social unpleasant situations, resulting in general unsatisfactory.
The term dental bridge (often simply referred to as bridges) as used herein the specification and claims denotes an integrated array of artificial teeth mimicking the teeth of a individual and designed for anchoring over two or more studs fixed to the individual's jaw bone (mandibular or maxillar), without the skirt portion, i.e. the gum mimicking portion (at times referred to as an ‘acrylic flange’). The term mimicking suggests that the bridge follows the individual's anatomical parameters, such as shape, size, color etc.
The terms studs and implants are used interchangeably throughout the specification and claims.
A challenge in this field is designing and manufacturing the bridge so as to achieve perfect fitting thereof to the particular needs and anatomical parameters of the individual.
There are known personalized dentures, such as, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 2006/0223029, disclosing a removable denture system comprising a support beam fixedly attached to the individual's alveolar ridge above the mucous membrane by a plurality of dental implants, and a denture generally conforming with the dental parameters of the individual and integrated with a super-structure. The super-structure comprises at least a portion shaped in confirmation with the support beam, and a denture locking arrangement for removably, though fixedly articulating the denture to the support beam preventing unintentional disengagement of the denture.
Dental bridges are known to be fixed to implants by means of connecting elements, referred to as ‘abutments’, or by direct fixing thereof to the implants. An abutment is usually fastened to the implant at its one end and to a bridge or another element at its other end. In the installed state the abutments are usually invisible or visible to a limited degree in the patient's mouth. One example of such abutments is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,788,986.